The Air Force has asked for $50 billion in emergency funding for Fiscal 2008, service spokeswoman Capt. Anna Carpenter confirmed Wednesday when questioned by the Daily Report. The huge request follows on the heels of an Oct. 25 directive from Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England that instructs the services to include the entire “long war” on terror not just current operations in Afghanistan and Iraq when formulating emergency funding requests. Carpenter would not discuss details of the 2008 request or an under-review additional request—beyond the $17 billion already submitted—for Fiscal 2007. Congress likely will take a dim view of the new instruction, since it already has signaled its displeasure of the Administration’s practice of funding the war on terror through emergency supplementals rather than within the primary defense budget.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
